NOVEMBER 2014

FULL MINUTES

NOVEMBER 2014

The November 11, 2014 Board meeting was called to order at 8:00 pm at the home of Mark and Robin Schaffer in Rockaway, NJ.

Present: Mark Schaffer, Rachel Streich, Bill Henderson, Lori Falco, Grover Kemble, Mike Agranoff, Jim Gartner, George Otto, Elizabeth Lachowicz, Pat Brangs, Lois DeRitter, Eddie Roffman, Joanne Cronin, Barrett Wilson, Scooter Ferguson, Paul Fisher, Lindsey Meyer, Jean Scully, Allan Kugel, Bob McNally, Leigh Walker. Absent: Robin Schaffer, Sandie Reilly, Ken Brody, Steve Humphreys, Gloria Friedman, Mike DelVecchio, Dave Sherman. Guests: Deborah Graham, Pam Robinson, and Bob Safranek.

ADMINISTRATION

October minutes were accepted without corrections.

TREASURER’S REPORT:

We have $8,596 in the Money Market account and approximately $7,000 in our Checking account as of October 31. We just paid $2,500 advance deposit to Tom Paxton for the upcoming Minstrel 40th Anniversary Special Concert in July 2015. We will be spending $2100 to send various Board members to the NERFA conference this weekend, and have a payment coming due next month for worker’s comp insurance for $1,980. Eddie noted that we will need to move some cash from our Vanguard account to our checking account over the next few months.

NEW BUSINESS:

NOVEMBER BOARD MEETINGS:

Mike A. pointed out that we usually move the November Board Meeting to the second Tuesday of the month so as not to conflict with Election Day. He asked, does anyone object to moving the November meeting back to the first Tuesday? Several people said they go to the polls after work, and would have trouble going to vote and making it to the meeting on time, and would probably end up skipping the meeting, and Lori said she likes to volunteer at the polls and would also have to miss the meeting as well. We will keep the November meeting on the second Tuesday every year.

LOCATION FOR JAN 2015 BOARD MEETING:

No one has volunteered to host the January 2015 meeting at their home. Scooter suggested we go back to Frank’s Pizza in Flanders, NJ. Mike A. suggested we put out an email request to the Fullboard mailing list to see if we can get anyone to volunteer their home for the meeting; if not, then we can meet at Frank’s Pizza. Bill very generously volunteered to rent a room at MUF at his expense to host the meeting. Barrett and Bill will work out the details.

NERFA 1-DAY CONFERENCE 2015: SEE WRITTEN REPORT

Pam Robinson brought it to our attention that NERFA has asked us to organize and run another one-day “mini-NERFA” conference in the Spring. She handed out a list of tasks that would need to be accomplished to make that happen; basically they are asking us to do EVERYTHING from choosing a date for the event to finding judges to choose Showcase performers, choose panel discussion topics (10 workshops), to recruiting 30 people to serve as panelists, to creating the day’s schedule, creating, copying and assembling program books, including bios for all panelists, showcase performers and other participants, to creating name badges, to setting up and running an instrument lock-up room, to organizing meals and snacks, to publicizing the event, to providing volunteers to set-up, run and clean up after the event, etc. This is FAR more work than we were asked to do for the Spring 2014 mini-NERFA.

Pros vs Cons of taking this on:

Pros:

    • build recognition for the FP within the folk “industry” as a strong and serious organization

    • gives our Board members a chance to network with other venues, presenters, publicity people

    • gives us a chance to see and hear performers we may not have heard of previously, and learn how to do our jobs better/easier.

    • give our performing members a chance to network with other performers, DJ’s, venue presenters and promoters; an opportunity to learn from others how to make better music, better CDs, promote themselves better, and get heard by other presenters and DJs.

Cons:

    • FP already produces over 140 events per year, do we need more?

    • We have only a finite number of volunteers with the knowledge, energy and time to make this event happen; many of them are already busy with other FP events, and producing this event would take an “astronomical” amount of work.

    • Pam estimates that it will take a minimum of 7-10 hours a week for 3 or 4 people for at least 10-12 weeks, just for the advance planning, and then the day-of will require at least 16-20 volunteers (including Sound) willing to put in a full day of work (approximately 10 hours).

Lengthy discussion ensued. A number of Board members spoke of the great publicity and boost to our reputation that would result from our sponsorship of this event, which could help bring more attendees to FP events. Quite a few others expressed grave concern over possible volunteer burnout, and suggested we do it every other year (Spring 2016?), or even every 3-5 years, or find another local folk organization to co-sponsor and help with the work. Elizabeth asked, “Do we have anyone ready, willing, and able to do this now (be one of the 3 or 4 people needed to begin advance planning)? Only Scooter raised his hand. It was suggested that we could make NERFA a counter-offer – we don’t have to agree to do everything. Bill suggested that we should agree to do only what we did last year; this is a NERFA event, they have more resources than we do, let them take responsibility for it. Elizabeth concluded that this is a great opportunity but, in her opinion, we don’t have the resources to agree to this right now. She and Pam will continue negotiating with NERFA.

BENEFIT FUNDRAISER FOR PAUL GEREMIAH:

Scooter reported that blues musician Paul Geremiah recently had a stroke and is in debt from his medical bills. Scooter would like to organize a benefit concert, in conjunction with Sanctuary Concerts, featuring Toby Walker, Roy Bookbinder, Stefan Grossman, and possibly Jorma Kaukonen. This is still in the “embryonic stage of development” said Scooter. He said it will be “cost neutral” to the FP, and asked if the Board had any objections to the idea. No one raised any objections. Mike A. suggested that he do it under the Special Concerts umbrella, in which case he doesn’t need Board approval.

OLD BUSINESS:

ANNUAL MEETING DINNER:

Once again, this event will be held at the Chimney Rock Inn, in Gillette, NJ, on December 2, 2014.

MUF FUNDRAISING AUCTION:

Elizabeth reported that the recent MUF fund-raising auction was a great success. The FP supplied music for the evening. In addition, a number of FP members donated goods/services to be auctioned: Grover donated 5 one-on-one guitar lessons; Bob donated a McNally Strumstick; Deborah Graham donated a pencil drawing; and the FP gave two gift baskets, one with Minstrel tickets and logo merchandise, and one Swingin’ Tern gift basket.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

COMMUNITY SERVICES: SEE WRITTEN REPORT

Pat reminded us that if we hear anything about someone in the FP, to please let her know.

NEWSLETTER: SEE WRITTEN REPORT

“Nothing to add to the written report”, said George.

ACOUSTIC GETAWAY: SEE WRITTEN REPORT

"Nothing to add to the written report", said Mark.

MEMBERSHIP: SEE WRITTEN REPORT

“Nothing to add to the written report”, said Eddie.

E-COMMUNICATIONS: SEE WRITTEN REPORT

“Nothing to add to the written report”, said Lori.

PUBLICITY: SEE WRITTEN REPORT

“Nothing to add to the written report”, said Paul. Jean noted we now have 350 followers on Twitter.

INTERNAL AFFAIRS: SEE WRITTEN REPORT

Dave absent, Elizabeth reported that the location for the Holiday Party is still to be determined.

SWINGIN’ TERN: SEE WRITTEN REPORT

Leigh reported attendance for the September and October dances were “not good”, and that he’d talked to organizers of 2 other dances, and they haven’t been doing well either. He further reported that their talent booker, Suzanne, has moved to MA. Xander has taken over as booker, while Virginia Nordstrom is the new volunteer coordinator. Suzanne left them in great shape, with bands booked for the first 6 months of the new year.

HSNOI: SEE WRITTEN REPORT

Sandie and Ken both absent, see written report.

SOUND REINFORCEMENT:

Mike D. absent, no report.

SPECIAL CONCERTS:

Grover’s performance as “Jimmy Durante” at the Halloween show went very well – Grover said he’s gotten 5 more bookings as a result. Scooter said the Jonathan Edwards/Lucy Kaplansky concert has sold about 60 advance tix so far, Jonathan will be doing some radio interviews to help publicize it, and his manager is very impressed with our Publicity Committee. The Holiday Show will feature 6 FP performers doing holiday music, and will be a fundraiser for MUF. Pam is looking for volunteers to staff it.

Scooter is negotiating to book Lawrence Juber for a concert on May 1, 2015, possibly with a guitar workshop on May 2.

MINSTREL BOOKING: SEE WRITTEN REPORT

Mike booked Carla Ulbrich for June 19, 2015. We paid Tom Paxton $2500 advance deposit for his concert on July 25, 2015.

Our Annual Meeting will be held on December 2, 2014, at the Chimney Rock Inn in Gillette, NJ, and is open to all FP members, with dinner at 6 pm, and the meeting at 8.

Meeting adjourned at 10:15 pm.